 |
| Angelika/Mike Schilli |
|
Michael Why am I telling you this? In March, we took the opportunity to travel on a long weekend again, this time heading down to Santa Barbara, almost near Los Angeles. We zoomed south along Highway 1 along the coast, past Big Sur and through San Luis Obispo (where, by the way, there is an excellent inn that brews its own beer and offers a dish called "Braumeister," which consists of two beef sausages with sauerkraut, yum!) covering the 300 miles with a rental car. Unfortunately, it was raining cats and dogs in Santa Barbara, and the main thing to report from there is that we had a funny experience in a restaurant.
Surely, we have mentioned before that it is customary here to wait at the restaurant entrance until the waiter assigns you a seat--this is called "Wait to be seated." And you never sit at a table with people you don't know; Americans prefer to have their own space. This, of course, leads to long lines of diners forming in front of the restaurant entrance, especially in the early evening hours, and you might end up waiting half an hour before it's your turn. Usually, there is a waiting list where you are registered (with your first name!), and when the waiter shouts "Mike! Party of two!" you may proceed to the assigned table and finally eat.
Of course, in our fast paced times, developments never stop, and modern restaurants present themselves as progressive: You receive a small "beeper," a little device about 2 by 3 inches in size, which receives signals like a cordless phone and triggers an alarm when the table becomes available. In a rather busy fish restaurant in Santa Barbara, we were told it would take about 20 minutes for a table to become available, and in exchange for handing over the car keys, we were given a beeper.
We took the opportunity to walk along the beach, not knowing that the beeper only had a range of about 300 feet. When we returned to the restaurant after some time, the beeper started buzzing, and we quickly went up the stairs to claim our table. However, the waitress said we were too late; the alarm had gone off several times without us showing up, and now our table had been given to someone else. We were furious! In the end, we did get a table in the packed place, so we were lucky. I had grilled shark, which was very tasty. I'll wholeheartedly recommend the place: "Brophy Brothers" in Santa Barbara. But don't go too far away with the beeper if you want a table!
|
|
|
|
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
All Editions:
2024 153 154 155 156 157
2023 148 149 150 151 152
2022 143 144 145 146 147
2021 138 139 140 141 142
2020 133 134 135 136 137
2019 129 130 131 132
2018 125 126 127 128
2017 120 121 122 123 124
2016 115 116 117 118 119
2015 111 112 113 114
2014 106 107 108 109 110
2013 101 102 103 104 105
2012 96 97 98 99 100
2011 91 92 93 94 95
2010 85 86 87 88 89 90
2009 79 80 81 82 83 84
2008 73 74 75 76 77 78
2007 66 67 68 69 70 71 72
2006 59 60 61 62 63 64 65
2005 54 55 56 57 58
2004 49 50 51 52 53
2003 43 44 45 46 47 48
2002 36 37 38 39 40 41 42
2001 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35
2000 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27
1999 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
1998 7 8 9 10 11 12
1997 1 2 3 4 5 6
1996 0